Klaipėda Drama Theatre and Miltinis' Drama Theatre in the Soviet Era: Moods, Challenges and Resistance

The aim of our research is to investigate the activities of Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre and Klaipėda Drama Theatre during the Soviet era, to see the differences between the moods and conditions in the theatres, and to see how the theatres have changed since independence.It is important that there are no written (publicly available) sources of information about the resistance in Klaipėda and Miltinis Drama Theatre. Our work aimed to fill this academic vacuum by finding out whether other theatres, as depicted in Aistė Stonytė's film "Mammoth Hunt" about the Kaunas Drama Theatre and the manifesto of director Jonas Jurašas, which inspired our research, did not succumb to the Soviet propaganda and/or whether this was reflected in their work. In order to carry out the research using the oral history method, we interviewed 5 actors from these two theatres who worked with Juozas Miltinis or Povilas Gaidys during the late Soviet era. We did not intend to compare the actors or their qualifications or experience on stage, but one of the main aims of our project was to compare the theatres. The aim was to find out what the theatre scene was like at that time, what were the most relevant themes and values. The most important thing was to discover how the theatre coped with the imposed regime that restricted freedom of conscience and what were the expressions of this, and to analyse the memories of actors and stories about the legendary directors Juozas Miltinis and Povilas Gaidys, discovering their common acts of resistance.  All the material collected is the personal experience of each of the actors interviewed, which has never been documented and preserved anywhere else. Watch the video to learn more about the research process, the challenges, listen to the inspiring memories of the actors and, finally, hear the surprising findings here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jwUtdrNcr4&t=15s